James Edward Gaffney (March 7, 1868 – August 17, 1932) was the owner of the Boston Braves of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

from , when he purchased the club from the estate of

William Hepburn Russell William Hepburn Russell (1812–1872) was a United States businessman. He was a partner, along with Alexander Majors and William B. Waddell, in the freighting firm Russell, Majors, and Waddell and the stagecoach company the Central Overland Ca ...

, to , when he sold the franchise to

Percy Haughton Percy Duncan Haughton (July 11, 1876 – October 27, 1924) was an American football and baseball player and coach. He served as head football coach at Cornell University from 1899 to 1900, at Harvard University from 1908 to 1916, and at Columbia ...

. Gaffney was born in New York City to Patrick Gaffney and Anne Masterson, Irish immigrants. In 1890, he married Essie Smith, whose family held numerous valuable properties in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. Gaffney was a

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was a New York City political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789 as the Tammany Society. It became the main loc ...

alderman and construction company owner. The two were intertwined. Gaffney made his fortune winning contracts that he'd obtained via Tammany and insider dealing. He was one of the closest friends and advisers of

Charles Francis Murphy Charles Francis "Silent Charlie" Murphy (June 20, 1858 – April 25, 1924), also known as Boss Murphy, was an American political figure. He was also the longest-serving head of New York City's Tammany Hall, a position he served from 1902 to 192 ...

, Tammany's boss. Essie Gaffney was a dear friend of Murphy's wife, Margaret. The "Miracle Braves" won the

1914 World Series The 1914 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's 1914 season. The 11th edition of the World Series, it was played between the American League champion and defending World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics and ...

under Gaffney's ownership. As team owner, he built

Nickerson Field Nickerson Field is an outdoor athletic stadium in the Northeastern United States, on the campus of Boston University (BU) in Boston, Massachusetts. The stadium is owned by BU, and is the home field for some Boston University Terriers athletics pr ...

(originally Braves Field) in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, which opened in 1915. Gaffney continued to own the stadium, although he never re-entered baseball after 1916 (despite various rumors). His primary pursuit became horseracing.

Thoroughbred racing

A fan of horse racing, James Gaffney owned and raced a stable of

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

s for a number of years.

References

Atlanta Braves owners
1868 births 1932 deaths Baseball executives Boston Braves (baseball) American racehorse owners and breeders {{US-baseball-business-bio-stub